Hill of Tears: Feminist Mourning, Spatial Resistance, and the Politics of Visibility

Author : Birge Yildirim Okta

Abstract : This research investigates how feminist theory can expand architectural conceptions of public space through the lens of mourning, visibility, and resistance. Grounded in Judith Butler’s notion of the right to be mourned and feminist critiques of spatial politics, the study explores how architecture can articulate the conditions under which certain lives are publicly recognised while others remain silenced. Using Hill of Tears installation as a case study, the research examines how spatial strategies of light, movement, and atmosphere can expose the thresholds between visibility and erasure, transforming public space into a field of embodied remembrance. The analysis demonstrates how the performative dynamics of space—its capacity to evoke emotion, participation, and collective memory—can reconfigure the politics of who is seen, mourned, and acknowledged within the civic realm. The findings critique objectified and technocratic approaches to placemaking by highlighting the relational and gendered dimensions of spatial experience. By reframing architecture as a medium of affective communication and political agency, the research reveals how feminist spatial practices can reclaim publicness as a site of care, protest, and transformation. Hill of Tears thus exemplifies how feminist performative architectures can generate new forms of collective visibility and mourning, challenging the structural silencing of gendered violence within the built environment.

Keywords : Feminist theory, public space, gendered violence, spatial politics, collective memory.

Conference Name : International Conference on Architectural Culture and Cultural Architecture (ICACCA-25)

Conference Place : Istanbul, Turkey

Conference Date : 30th Dec 2025